MARPLE — If you talk to the myriad football players mentored by Danny Algeo at Cardinal O’Hara, they’ll tell you that football constituted just a small part of the lessons Algeo imparted.

Natasha Cloud is living proof.

That’s why when the All-Delco girls basketball player learned the devastating news Thursday morning that Algeo had died, she knew she had to do something to help the O’Hara community express its sorrow.

Cloud, along with All-Delco football player Corey Brown and with the help of the Cardinal O’Hara athletic community, orchestrated a vigil Thursday night at the school to mourn the passing of Algeo, the 49-year-old football coach and teacher who had suffered a heart attack Monday.

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Cloud, who has one year of eligibility remaining at Saint Joseph’s University, helped lead the tearful and moving tributes to Algeo, a man who impacted the lives of many at O’Hara, whether they played football or not.

“I came as a freshman, he was the (athletic director) here,” Cloud said. “When I wanted to come to O’Hara or (Archbishop) Carroll, it was between the two, Dan really talked me into coming to O’Hara, along with (basketball coach) Linus (McGinty). He’s one of the main reasons I came to O’Hara. He’s had such an impact on me throughout the years. He’s a football coach, but he’s supported women’s basketball like it’s his team.”

Cloud was one of several speakers detailing their long associations with Algeo before some 300 or so members of the O’Hara and Lansdale Catholic communities. Algeo attended Lansdale Catholic and began his coaching career there, working with his father, Jim, who piloted the Crusaders for 53 seasons ending in 2011.

Among those speaking were Tony Naab and Paul Strus, two coaches who have worked at O’Hara for decades and fostered close relationships with Algeo. They each identified coaching and mentoring youths as an avocation for Algeo, the task he was destined to undertake to instill in them the kind of faith that guided his life.

Some of Algeo’s former football pupils reminisced about their coach, including Steve Weyler, a 2014 graduate and All-Delco bound for Villanova, and Damiere Shaw, a 2012 All-Delco coaching at Temple University after his playing career there was cut short. Also taking to the mic was Brown, an All-Delco wide receiver who last fall completed his career at Ohio State University and signed a free-agent contract with the Carolina Panthers.

Brown was in town after Algeo afforded him the opportunity to work with students at some of the Lions’ summer camps. Even had he been hard at work fighting for an NFL job, Brown said that he would’ve done anything possible to come home and memorialize his mentor’s life.

Brown, like Shaw, could recall his first meeting with Algeo in eighth grade. Brown recounted that the first words Algeo ever said to him, after a game for St. Francis of Assisi, was “you’re the best player on the field.” That became a recurring theme in their correspondence through college, Brown drawing constant inspiration from the faith Algeo placed in him.

“It goes far beyond the field,” Brown said. “It was more the things he did off the field to shape us into the men we are now, and that obviously has affected our lives in a major way. And it’s helped us to grow out of that little immature stage that everybody has and basically changed us to men. When you become more mature off the field, you become a better player on the field.”

Weyler exhorted the members of the 2014 team in attendance to regard themselves as Algeo’s legacy. He also recalled the last words he and Algeo shared, the frequent refrain to “focus on that kick.” And Weyler offered a note of consolation: Where Algeo had expressed concern through the summer that he might not be able to get to all of Weyler’s Villanova games, the kicker is assured that Algeo will be watching them all, “from the best seats in the house.”

Shaw described meeting Algeo in middle school as “like meeting an idol,” setting a goal to earn a place at O’Hara. When Shaw’s mom was diagnosed with cancer, Algeo was the first person he called, a father figure in good times and bad.

Perhaps Cloud summed it up best for those gathered, those who knew Algeo well and those who’d only met him a few times.

“He was more than just a football coach,” she said. “He led with ‘faith, family and football.’ And football came last. Faith came first, and then your family. And I think that’s something he lived by, and it’s something that he instilled in not only me and Corey but everyone that attended O’Hara.”